Tag Archives: Homemade Spanish tomato sauce

Cooking tomatoes local

Late summer, the end of daylight saving, but PEAK for TOMATOES.

Tomatoes love nothing better than bask in full sun all summer, and longer if they can get away with it. Provided they’ve had lots of fertiliser (chicken and duck manure, fish emulsion, seaweed) to give them flavour, sun will bring out the ripeness.

Alas, many commercial tomatoes are not ripened on the vine. Instead, they are picked when green – and before they go onto the supermarket shelf, they are ripened in the coolroom using ethylene. No wonder they taste like nothing, and last for about 3 days. By contrast, tomatoes that have been ripened on the vine have a huge amount of flavour, and should last (out of the fridge) for 2 weeks.

Some tomatoes – usually near the peak of the season – are left on the vine until they are almost over-ripe, and these so called cooking tomatoes contain less liquid but loads more flavour. They’re available from March to June, and are perrrfect for home-made pasta sauce, tomato soup, bruschetta and casseroles.

Unfortunately we seem to be wedded to canned tomatoes – and really, we just don’t get it:

More often than not, cans contain imported tomatoes

Imagine the energy – not to mention greenhouse gasses – used to manufacture the steel cans, process the tomatoes, and then transport them around the world!

Many – if not most – steel cans are lined with a plastic that contains BPA (Bisphenol A): this is a hormone disruptor that can seep into the food, and can have adverse health effects. Many plastic bottles and containers also use BPA. Although the research is far from conclusive, there seem to growing evidence of people with high levels of BPA running a greater risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and lower fertility. As with many things in life: prevention is easier than the cure.

Canned tomatoes are almost always more expensive than fresh tomatoes: a typical 440g can of Ardmona tomatoes costs $1.40. That works out at $3.18/kg. By contrast, our fresh cooking tomatoes cost $2.50/kg, or even $2 a kg if you buy 2kg. That’s a saving of 37%.

But above all, fresh cooking tomatoes taste so much better than their canned cousins.

Heat oil in frypan over a medium heat then add the onions and cook until golden brown. Add the garlic and ginger with one tbsp water and cook. Then add spices and cook then stir in the tomatoes. Cook 3 minutes.

Fry off your onion in the olive oil on a medium heat until soft. Reduce the heat and add the garlic. Cook for a further five minutes stirring. Add the chopped tomatoes to the mix. Add them to the mixture. Add the Rest of the ingredients and cook on a medium heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Take out the bay leaves and discard. Whizz the tomato sauce in a food processor or blender until it is fairly smooth.